Tennie has the right of it. Also, the forums and the website are almost entirely different beasts. I paid my :tenbux: years ago, just to get onto their Let's Play subforum. Never gone to the main site, except to get to the forums once or twice. Think of the place less as a comedy site with a paywall, and more as an online community with 180,000+ members... and a comedy site attached to it. I've gotten more amusement out of it than any twenty games I've ever bought.
As for dodging my spells, that's my problem right now. ALL SORTS OF POWER... but very little control over it. Notice how I can't maintain too many of them at once? Notice how they aren't doing as much as I expect? The spells I'm using right now are both inefficiently designed, and insufficiently optimized. I'm getting fewer spells than I should for my mental buck, spending more power for the effect than I should be, and getting effects that are either not what I need, or not flexible enough for what I need.
Magic Missile is capable of the sort of crazy maneuvering that, say, Divine Shooter bullets can do. The problem is that I don't have the free mental bandwidth, skill, or experience to make it do that.
(There's a scene in A's where Nanoha is battering down Vita's shield with 20ish independently controlled shooter bullets. That is SKILL and TALENT. I don't has it.)
I'm attempting, at this point, to compensate in a few ways. First, volume of fire. I can't get as much out of each bullet as other mages, but I have the thoroughput to make WTFHAX numbers of them... or will, once I make a Magic Missile variant adapted to sustain more than 32 shots at once. Second, grouped fire. Giving 32 missiles proper guidance is well beyond me. Controlling 4 groups of 8 missiles each is much more possible. Third, limited guidance. Scatter fire is easier than aiming. One-time course corrections are easier than aiming- and take a lot less time. Even at this point, I can take one group, give it a new vector, bounce to another group, revector it, move to the next group...
Incidentally, look back a few posts. Shot Blast is basically what you're describing- the logic for that particular MM post-cast mod is basically 'For each bullet in this volley, add random Y- and Z-bearing deviations to its current vector, not to exceed 45 degrees', plus a bit of code to make sure that the groupings can't get weighted too much. I've used it three times in this engagement.
Painkillers, Tennie? I have something better. :3
**********
...on second thought, let's turn the pain editors back *on*. Why does the diagnostic do that, anyway? If I'm hurt badly enough to need it, I'm hurt badly enough to make it a bad idea.At least the chest wound missed all my favorite organs, and I can still move that arm. Good enough for me right now!
Oh, look. Here come the other three Numbers... wait. Three? The infiltrator was one of us?
From where I was, I could see three women in beat-up blue bodysuits slowly moving down the trench I'd dug. The tallest of the three- must be Tre- I'm sure she was the tallest of the girls- was on one side, an arm around the middle girl's chest to hold her up. The shorter of the three- Cinque- I can see that coat from here- was on her other side, helping to keep the other girl balanced. In the middle, though...Is that Sein?! I don't remember her being activated... but then, I've been sort of busy for a while now. I could've missed it. Blasted sunset! I'd know who it was already, if they could just WALK INTO THE LIGHT!
That's a little better. Hair's not dark enough for most of the Numbers I don't know by sight, not dumb enough for Quattro, and not bright enough to be one of the redheads. Could be Due- I think she was blond, not that that matters- but wasn't she on assignment in the Bureau? Why would she be here?
With the sun setting, I didn't manage to catch a good look at the third Number until they got fairly close to me... not that my amateur landscaping efforts really helped. Of course, once they got close enough to talk to, it quickly became obvious what was going on.
"Hey- what happened to you?"Way to go Vita on me, Cinque. "Some Type-IIs caught me by surprise." The light hit the three of them just right, giving me my first good look. "...Sein?!" No doubt about it- I'd know that hair any day of the week... as long as I could see it.
The newest Number lifted her head- wow, that's a lot of bruising!- and smiled wanly. "Hey, big brother! Wait, why are you big if you're so..." Her eyes lost focus mid-sentence, and she slumped back down again.
All I had to do was look at Tre, quizzically. "Concussion, a lot of bruising, and some lacerations. She'll recover in a few days." I had to sigh in relief at that. Sein was always one of my favorites. Good to hear she's safe. "That is, if we can get her back to the lab."
With the emphasis Tre put on those last few words, even a deaf, stoned rhinoceros would've taken the hint. "Oh. Right." The spell actually initiated before I thought to order it, my Device being far more on the ball than I was at the time. Soon enough, the four of us were taking the long sequence of hops that'd lead back to home base.
Mission. Freaking. Accomplished. Finally.
My Unitarian Jihad Name is: Brother Atom Bomb of Courteous Debate. Get yours.
I've been writing a bit.
As for dodging my spells, that's my problem right now. ALL SORTS OF POWER... but very little control over it. Notice how I can't maintain too many of them at once? Notice how they aren't doing as much as I expect? The spells I'm using right now are both inefficiently designed, and insufficiently optimized. I'm getting fewer spells than I should for my mental buck, spending more power for the effect than I should be, and getting effects that are either not what I need, or not flexible enough for what I need.
Magic Missile is capable of the sort of crazy maneuvering that, say, Divine Shooter bullets can do. The problem is that I don't have the free mental bandwidth, skill, or experience to make it do that.
(There's a scene in A's where Nanoha is battering down Vita's shield with 20ish independently controlled shooter bullets. That is SKILL and TALENT. I don't has it.)
I'm attempting, at this point, to compensate in a few ways. First, volume of fire. I can't get as much out of each bullet as other mages, but I have the thoroughput to make WTFHAX numbers of them... or will, once I make a Magic Missile variant adapted to sustain more than 32 shots at once. Second, grouped fire. Giving 32 missiles proper guidance is well beyond me. Controlling 4 groups of 8 missiles each is much more possible. Third, limited guidance. Scatter fire is easier than aiming. One-time course corrections are easier than aiming- and take a lot less time. Even at this point, I can take one group, give it a new vector, bounce to another group, revector it, move to the next group...
Incidentally, look back a few posts. Shot Blast is basically what you're describing- the logic for that particular MM post-cast mod is basically 'For each bullet in this volley, add random Y- and Z-bearing deviations to its current vector, not to exceed 45 degrees', plus a bit of code to make sure that the groupings can't get weighted too much. I've used it three times in this engagement.
Painkillers, Tennie? I have something better. :3
**********
...on second thought, let's turn the pain editors back *on*. Why does the diagnostic do that, anyway? If I'm hurt badly enough to need it, I'm hurt badly enough to make it a bad idea.At least the chest wound missed all my favorite organs, and I can still move that arm. Good enough for me right now!
Oh, look. Here come the other three Numbers... wait. Three? The infiltrator was one of us?
From where I was, I could see three women in beat-up blue bodysuits slowly moving down the trench I'd dug. The tallest of the three- must be Tre- I'm sure she was the tallest of the girls- was on one side, an arm around the middle girl's chest to hold her up. The shorter of the three- Cinque- I can see that coat from here- was on her other side, helping to keep the other girl balanced. In the middle, though...Is that Sein?! I don't remember her being activated... but then, I've been sort of busy for a while now. I could've missed it. Blasted sunset! I'd know who it was already, if they could just WALK INTO THE LIGHT!
That's a little better. Hair's not dark enough for most of the Numbers I don't know by sight, not dumb enough for Quattro, and not bright enough to be one of the redheads. Could be Due- I think she was blond, not that that matters- but wasn't she on assignment in the Bureau? Why would she be here?
With the sun setting, I didn't manage to catch a good look at the third Number until they got fairly close to me... not that my amateur landscaping efforts really helped. Of course, once they got close enough to talk to, it quickly became obvious what was going on.
"Hey- what happened to you?"Way to go Vita on me, Cinque. "Some Type-IIs caught me by surprise." The light hit the three of them just right, giving me my first good look. "...Sein?!" No doubt about it- I'd know that hair any day of the week... as long as I could see it.
The newest Number lifted her head- wow, that's a lot of bruising!- and smiled wanly. "Hey, big brother! Wait, why are you big if you're so..." Her eyes lost focus mid-sentence, and she slumped back down again.
All I had to do was look at Tre, quizzically. "Concussion, a lot of bruising, and some lacerations. She'll recover in a few days." I had to sigh in relief at that. Sein was always one of my favorites. Good to hear she's safe. "That is, if we can get her back to the lab."
With the emphasis Tre put on those last few words, even a deaf, stoned rhinoceros would've taken the hint. "Oh. Right." The spell actually initiated before I thought to order it, my Device being far more on the ball than I was at the time. Soon enough, the four of us were taking the long sequence of hops that'd lead back to home base.
Mission. Freaking. Accomplished. Finally.
My Unitarian Jihad Name is: Brother Atom Bomb of Courteous Debate. Get yours.
I've been writing a bit.